Framed by My Own Family

My cousin, Tiffany Wilkinson, brought her new boyfriend, Isaac Lloyd, home for the first time. The dinner was going great, chatting and laughing like everything was perfect.

Out of nowhere, Isaac locked eyes on me, his face lighting up with fake surprise as he practically shouted, "Wait, don't I know you from somewhere? Aren't you in that 'Elite Escort Group'?"

He added, "I swear I saw your rate card in the group photos... It was only 200 dollars or something?"

He slapped a hand over his mouth afterward, putting on this innocent act like he had just let something slip.

The lively dining room went dead silent in an instant. My relatives' looks turned cold and judgmental, making me utterly uncomfortable all over.

"He looks so decent on the outside, but he's actually doing that kind of thing behind closed doors."

"You're such a disgrace to the Wilkinson family. Don't even tell people you're related to us from now on."

Dad was so furious he slammed his wine glass down, and Mom sat there wiping away tears.

I calmly dabbed my mouth with my napkin, then looked at Isaac with a knowing smirk. "Makes sense that I look familiar. I'm with the Vice Squad, and I just busted you in a sting operation last month!"

The second those words came out of my mouth, the whole room went dead silent for a good three seconds.

Suddenly, Isaac Lloyd's fork hit the plate with a loud clang. His bright, handsome face went ghostly white in an instant.

I let out a silent scoff in my head. Was that all it took to scare him?

Before I could even pull out my badge, my airheaded cousin, Tiffany Wilkinson, exploded first. She snatched up her fork and slammed it back down on the table.

Then, jabbing her finger right at my nose, she screamed, "Shawn Wilkinson, are you out of your mind? Are you making up lies like this just to cover yourself? If you're really with the Vice Squad, then I'm the Queen!"

My aunt, Patricia Wilkinson, caught on and chimed in with her snide tone.

"Oh my, I've always said Shawn's been full of hot air since he was little. He gets caught doing something shameful by Isaac, so now he's pretending to be a police officer? That's a crime, you know... George, aren't you going to do something about your son?"

My father, George Wilkinson's face turned beet red with anger. He was about to slam his fist on the table when my uncle, Richard Wilkinson, grabbed his arm to stop him. Meanwhile, Isaac had already recovered his composure.

I had to hand it to him. He had incredible nerves, and he could definitely consider a career in acting.

Isaac's eyes instantly rimmed with red, tears threatening to spill over at any second. His body went limp as he slumped against Tiffany's shoulder, trembling all over.

"Tiffany... Did I get the wrong person? T-that photo with the two-hundred-dollar rate card really looked just like Shawn..."

He choked up while fumbling frantically for his phone.

"Let me pull it up and show you... Maybe I really did get it mixed up."

He opened his photo gallery and shoved the screen right in front of my relatives' faces. It was a blurry side profile shot of a shirtless man, posing in an explicit position. Aside from the hairstyle being somewhat similar to mine, the facial features were clearly photoshopped composites.

However, did any of my relatives care about the truth?

All they cared about was whether there was drama to gossip about and whether they had a chance to step all over my family.

The phone got passed around among the relatives, and the living room erupted into chaos.

"Oh my goodness, you really can't judge a book by its cover!"

"Shawn looks so proper on the outside, but he's actually doing this behind the scenes?"

"He's only charging two hundred dollars? That cheap? How desperate for money can he be?"

"The Wilkinson family name is going straight into the gutter with this disgrace!"

All those contemptuous stares landed squarely on me.

I pointed at the figure in the photo and zoomed in with two fingers.

"Are you sure about that? This image is obviously edited. The muscle definition has clear splicing marks, but more importantly... Everyone, please look... This man's hand in the back has six fingers."

I had previously worked on fraud cases involving doctored images, so I had plenty of experience spotting those things.

Clearly, Isaac had no idea about that. His face went pale, then he put on a pitiful expression again.

"Fine, if you say it's not you, then it's not. Just stop looking at me like that. You're scaring me..."

He buried his face into Tiffany's shoulder as he spoke.

Tiffany jabbed her finger at my nose and cursed, "You did something like this yourself, and now you won't even let people talk about it? If you have the guts, show us your proof!"

The other relatives chimed in with their agreement.